Missing Message
by mysticxf
Summary: Sawyer’s going through the messages in the bottle again.


Lost belongs to JJ Abrams and crew, borrowing for some non-profit fun. Sawyer's going through the messages in the bottle again. Enjoy!

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Lost – Missing Message  
By Mystic  
June 2nd 2005

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The bottle underneath his leg swayed with the motion of the ocean waves beneath him. He caught it quickly and tapped it with his toes back towards him as he rolled up another message and undid the top to put it in. Sawyer removed his glasses and pressed the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. Not from his vision, but from the concentration with which he'd been reading. He sighed, unrolling another message in his hand and seeing he'd read it before, jammed it into the bottle.

The damned rudder fell off and he lost his place. He had to start over, opening each roll carefully and reading the first sentence, finding ones he hadn't read before. Walt came walking across the deck and stared at him, leaning his weight on the cabin and giving him the evil eye.

"I know, Webster, they're private." He waved a hand at him, dismissing him away, but the boy didn't budge. Walt gave a long sigh and remained watching him. Sawyer shoved his glasses back on his nose and unrolled another, skimming the contents he'd already read before pressing it inside. Guy worth millions and he didn't even know who to con.

Walt shifted his body, pressing his shoulder into the metal cabin now as his eyes drifted towards the ocean. Sawyer couldn't concentrate on the message in front of him. He shoved it into the bottle without reading past "someone please tell my kids…" and slammed the bottle down between his legs.

"You got a problem?"

Walt turned to face him. He shrugged his shoulders, which made Sawyer flare his nose. Sawyer gripped the top of the bottle and held the last few messages in his right hand, feeling them crumple slightly under the pressure of his anger. He opened another one audibly, watching Walt's face. The boy's jaw tightened and his lips pressed together tightly.

"Awe, for the mother of…" Sawyer spat.

"What?" Walt asked.

"Curious, ain't ya?" Sawyer grinned, tilting his head slightly.

"No," Walt told him with a shrug.

"You don't care what this says?" Sawyer asked, waving the little piece of paper in the air like a flag.

"It's not my letter." Walt sighed.

"Then what's the big deal if I read 'em."

"It's just none of your business." Walt crossed his arms across his chest. "Besides, she didn't write one."

Sawyer's voice dropped as he muttered, "Who?"

"Kate." Walt watched him now, his eyes focused on how Sawyer's dark eyebrows dropped heavily, wrinkling the skin between them. "She wouldn't write one, said there's no one on the mainland for her to write one to."

Sawyer gritted his teeth. "Maybe she wouldn't be writing to anyone on the mainland."

Walt grinned back at him. "You ratted her out. Why would she write to you? She hates you."

"She tell you that, son?" Sawyer pressed the remaining letters through the hole with his thumb and squeezed the top back into the opening, sealing the messages inside the bottle. Sawyer watched Walt shake his head. "Well then, how do you know what she's feeling? You psychic all of a sudden?"

"I just know if it were me? I would hate you."

He stood, menacingly and asked, "You hate me, boy?"

"No," Walt told him with a shake of his head. Sawyer was annoyed at the way Walt wasn't even frightened of him. Walt sighed, considering. "She doesn't hate you either, I guess."

Sawyer lowered his head, wishing he weren't wearing the stupid ponytail he'd taken from a pink bag just before handing it over to Claire – full of brushes and other hair things he'd watched her search for over and over in the last month – and blew a stray strand out of his face. "You should do something useful. Like sleep." He walked past the boy towards the horizon ahead of them.

Walt snorted. "She did tell me something before we left."

He found himself stopping and turning, waiting. Was he that desperate? What was he expecting to hear? Sawyer lowered his eyes to the ground and looked back up at the sea around them. "Don't care Short Stuff."

"Yes, you do." The calmness on Walt's voice was what made his foot stay planted on the ground instead of taking another step towards the Korean preparing their lunch.

Sawyer turned, a smile plastered on his face to hide his annoyance… and his curiosity. He raised a hand, leaning against the cabin's edge, as if to permit Walt to speak.

"She told me when the waters get rough, hold on." He paused, letting the simple words wash through Sawyer. "Said when the men fight, stay out of the way. And when the sun rises and sets, pay attention."

"Now why in the hell would she tell you that?" Sawyer snapped, throwing his head back.

Walt shrugged. He watched the anger drip off Sawyer's face as his lips repeated the words back to himself silently, as if trying to find some deeper meaning. Walt tugged on his life preserver, squinting his eyes into the sunlight. "Said to be safe, that's all she meant."

Sawyer nodded his head slowly and frowned, kicking at nothing on the deck of their raft. He raised his head to the horizon and glanced sideways at the boy who was staring at the same spot. "Thanks, Walt." Sawyer turned away from Walt, back towards where Jin was cutting fruit, imagining the woman on the beach who pretended she didn't care.

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Finis 


End file.
